The gradual shrinkage of freshwater and marine turtle population in India has been a major cause for concern for wildlife activists like Biswajit Mohanty. As secretary, Wildlife Society of Orissa, Mohanty has been instrumental in turtle conservation efforts in the state and neighbouring areas. A member of the National Board for Wildlife, chaired by the Prime Minister, Mohanty was recently invited by the State Department of the US government for a three-week education and exposure programme.

He was also felicitated with the Ford Conservation & Environmental Award. Mohanty speaks to Prasanta Paul of Deccan Herald on threats faced by freshwater turtles in India. Excerpts:

Explain the nature of threat to fresh water turtles in India.
Turtles play a vital role in the aquatic eco-system; they eat dead fish and other wastes and keep the water clean. Due to increasing human interference, they are becoming endangered. The biggest threat in the riverine areas is the high level of poaching and illegal trade. The second area of concern is uncontrolled fishing in the rivers.

You then say that fishermen indulge in poaching and illegal trade of turtles?
That is partly true. In the first place, turtles often get caught in fishermen’s net in the rivers; no single fishing trawler is fitted with turtle excluder device. It’s a horrifying scene to see hundreds of turtles killed accidentally during fishing. Secondly, poverty is another factor that has been driving poor fishermen into the poaching racket.
Also, in turtle-populated rivers of India, water pollution is fast emerging as a major threat. Dumping of plastics on the river, for instance, is not only increasing the pollution level of water, but are also dangerous to turtles as they feed on floating plastics assuming them to be jellyfish and die a painful death. Besides, artificial lights near river banks and erosion of soil are also contributing to the dwindling of turtle population.

Give us a glimpse of the poaching and illegal trading of turtles.
Traders operate in various ways. First, they camp in villages and lure fisher folk into trapping the creatures along with their normal catch. Once turtles are caught and ferried to the bank, traders pay up the agreed amount — which is often not very high — and decamp in small vehicle hiding the turtles under fish consignments. Sometimes, traders find out the nesting place of these turtles by just bribing the fishing folk and whisk the creatures away from their habitat.

How big is the market?
It’s difficult to guess the size of the market as we have to only depend on inputs gathered from traders arrested for poaching and illegal trade. Going by their account, it could be anywhere between two to three quintals per month. In the last six months, 147 turtles had been seized. Except during four months of monsoon when the rivers are in spate, the illegal trade is on throughout the year.

What have you done to conserve turtles?
Conservation can’t take place in isolation. Strict compliance of law, on the other hand, would not help either. What is needed is a multi-pronged approach in which the state forest department, fishermen, municipal authorities and the police must work together.

Interaction with the fishermen plays an important role in turtle conservation. When we first mounted conservation efforts, thanks to the textile company Turtle Ltd, we began involving the local fishermen in a big way. We organised meetings with them and apprised them on the need for saving the creatures. We printed leaflets in local languages and distributed them in the villages, in which we highlighted the need for turtle conservation. We also made sure that we regularly met the fishermen.

Did you face any hurdles?
Of course, we did; initially, the fishermen were furious and declined to listen to us. But we were patient and began slowly explaining the benefits and they considerably cooled down. We’ve also urged the government to introduce some kind of incentives for the fishermen who would inform the local authorities about the illegal poaching. Next, we’ve impressed on the fishermen to release a turtle and turtles that get mistakenly caught in the fishing net. Over the last couple of years, the measure has started yielding results that are quite encouraging.

In what way?
We now have 10 units working in villages along the Mahanadi bank in Orissa. Besides mounting a vigil, they have succeeded in instilling a level of confidence among the fishermen and villagers who not only keep a tab, but inform sighting of large-scale turtle presence. This large presence would act as an indication for fishermen of the fish stock.

How would you rate your success?
It’s just the beginning of a long journey in conservation and I’d like to continue as long as I can. I am not quite keen to measure my success.